Kickstarter's Drip takes on Patreon with subscription crowdfunding

Today, Kickstarter launches a new way to fund interesting projects. It's called Drip and rather than pledging a certain amount of money to one project, it lets you subscribe to a creator and give them monthly payments. Drip was a standalone subscription platform, but Kickstarter bought it last year just as it was set to shutdown. It has now been retooled by Kickstarter and though it's largely similar to other subscription crowdfunding sites, such as Patreon, Drip does have a couple of features that set it apart from the rest.

First, it adopts Kickstarter's time limit model, though in a slightly different way. While Kickstarter requires creators to get fully funded within in a certain time window, Drip doesn't. The account will remain active no matter how much money is pledged. But to encourage people to subscribe, it lets creators pick a certain amount of time -- current Drip creators have chosen anything between seven and 30 days -- in which funders can become founding members. If they pledge within that window, they'll get special perks.

Another difference is that Drip will help creators move their project and funders over to a different crowdfunding platform if they choose. "If we were in a revenue-maximizing situation, this would not be the smartest decision," Kickstarter's new chief product officer, Jamie Wilkinson, told the Verge. "But from the perspective of supporting creators, it's a no-brainer." Kickstarter cofounder Perry Chen added, "We're not basing our success or failure primarily on growth. It's about, are we succeeding in our mission? Are we helping creator projects come to life?"

Currently, joining Drip is invite-only for creators and at launch, 61 artists have subscription pages, which you can check out here. Drip will open up to more artists early next year.